1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inter-device operation interface, a device control terminal, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a large part of information related to video data, music data, and the like have been managed as digital data. With the development of information communication technology, a service in that digitalized video or music data or the like is recorded on a server to distribute the recorded various data to a user through a network has been spreading out. Furthermore, a service in that data such as a picture or a video clip is uploaded on a server on a network, and is shared among users has been also spreading out.
Recently, a utility form in that video data or music data recorded on a computer in a study has been viewed on a television installed in a living room by using a network (so-called home network) laid down has been realized. As another example, a utility form in that a user operates a remote controller while watching a TV screen to record a broadcast program on a recording device on a home network installed on a distant place has been also realized.
However, at the present, since a screen interface of a television or the like is designed centering around an operation related to the television, a process of cooperating with a plurality of devices on a home network is difficult to be executed. Even though an icon or the like representing an inter-device operation is added to such a screen interface, the screen interface has such a cumbersome configuration that a user can hardly use the screen interface. Furthermore, recently, the number of types of devices or the number of devices connected to the home network increases, a technique to easily realize matching between contents held by the devices and the devices in which the contents are executed is desired to be developed.
In relation to an interface which operates a plurality of connection devices, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H07-146774, a technique that operates icons displayed on a screen to control reproducing and recording of a video image, music, or the like between devices connected to the icons is disclosed. Furthermore, in this document, a technique that expresses states of the devices by changes in shape of the icons is also disclosed. As in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H07-146774, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-92575 discloses an interface technique in that connected devices are expressed by icons on a screen, and, when one of the icons is selected, an operation matched with the device of the selected icon and a candidate of a device to be operated by the operation are narrowed down and displayed.